The Misfit (Poem)

 The story of the evildoer who showed compassion to Jesus 

(Bob Benson: Excerpt from Laughter In The Walls

© Copyright 1969 Peggy Benson).

It seemed to be his lot, he was one of those unfortunate people, with a talent always to be in the wrong place … always at the wrong time. He was born wrong: The declining Roman Empire, the broken home. The conquered Jewish nation, the poverty-stricken slums.

He lived wrong: When others went to school, he played hooky; others played ball, he stole apples. Others learned trades, he learned to cheat. Just a common thief … he started wrong, he lived wrong.

And it looked as if he’d finish wrong: The wrong place, and the wrong time: A Roman cross, a painful death … A final shame; when, from the middle cross, came words of redeeming love:

“You shall be with me in Paradise!”

In all the stream of history, one and only One of all the numberless sons of Adam could have said these words, and he hung beside Him! In one instant his life, given to evil … thoroughly misused, doomed to die, was changed and ended in crowning glory. It was the one sentence without which there is no success; It was the one sentence which redeems all failure said to him at life’s final flickering moment. 

The one most important issue of all was gloriously solved:

At long last, he was in the RIGHT PLACE at the RIGHT TIME!

EPILOGUE

What a 'sentence' handed down from the middle cross; one single (spoken)  'sentence' that commuted the sympathetic robber's death sentence to a life sentence … ETERNAL LIFE; the longest life sentence following a death sentence in the history of jurisprudence and justice.

✋